Why is there such a blind spot when it comes to Asian American women writers? Women, writers of color, and Asians are all often overlooked, so this particular demographic faces a triple challenge. But after putting together this list, I suspect there may be some other factors as well.
First, we need to widen what we think of when we think “Asian.” The default tendency is to think East Asian — Chinese, Japanese, Korean and so on — but there are also huge numbers of Southeast Asian and South Asian authors. All of these writers add new voices and new perspectives to the culture.
Second, we need to look beyond the “typical” Asian. Look at the list below; you’ll see names like Nguyen, Banerjee and Wong, but you’ll also see names we don’t immediately associate with Asia: Ruthanne Lum McCunn, for example, author of “A Thousand Pieces of Gold”; Sherry Thomas, author of more than 15 romance novels and two-time winner of the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award; Nina McConigley, whose debut collection, “Cowboys and East Indians,” won the 2014 PEN Open Book Award. Some of the authors on this list identify as fully Asian; some are part Asian; some are adopted; some use their married names; some use pen names. In short, many more authors identify as Asian American writers than you might realize from a quick glance at the spines on the bookshelf.
Third, when we talk about “writers,” we’re often really thinking “writers of literary fiction.” In fact, there are quite a few Asian American women writing literary fiction, but there are also dozens writing in other genres, everything from YA to middle grade fiction to historical fiction to romance to sci-fi/fantasy to graphic novels. Many are bestsellers and/or award-winners within their genres. Just as we need to recognize and overcome our blind spot toward Asian American women writers, we need to recognize and overcome the blind spot many critics also have toward so-called genre fiction.
Unfortunately, nothing in the response to the Senate report by current CIA Director John Brennan had anywhere near the moral clarity found in Collins’ assessment. Brennan, who has been a critical adviser to President Obama, held a very unusual 45-minute press conference at CIA headquarters to respond to the report’s release.
Brennan opened his appearance with a very dramatic recitation of the bloody events on Sept. 11 and described a post 9/11 CIA in a situation where “there were no easy answers” and concern over preventing a potential second series of attacks was of paramount concern. During that period Brennan himself was the CIA’s deputy director.
Brennan went to great lengths to distance himself from the program and his time at the agency, which coincided with its creation and operation. “I was aware of the detention interrogation program. I had some visibility into some of the activities that were there. I was not in the chain of command. I did not have authority over the implementation of that program or the management oversight over it.”
Brennan recounted that early on in President Obama’s first term the president denounced the EIT tactics as “contrary” to American values and “unequivocally banned them.” Brennan said he also found them “abhorrent.” Yet on the critical question of their use down the line he said he would “defer to the policymakers in future times” as to whether the CIA should ever revert back to its EIT playbook.
Director Brennan also took issue with the Senate Committee report’s findings that EITs failed to produce worthwhile intelligence. “There was information obtained subsequent to the application of EITs from detainees that was useful in the bin Laden operation,” Brennan insisted.
As for the decision by his colleagues back in 2005 to destroy all of those videotapes of the Agency’s EIT handiwork in action, he refused to second-guess his colleagues. “I think that has all been looked at quite a bit over the years,” Brennan told reporters.Interested in getting a big-picture view of just how total and remarkable the Republican Party’s migration to the South has really been, Salon recently called Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson, author of the recent released “To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party,” to discuss the fall of the Southern Democrat and the rise of the Dixie Republican. Our conversation is below and has been edited for clarity and length.
Why is there such a blind spot when it comes to Asian American women writers? Women, writers of color, and Asians are all often overlooked, so this particular demographic faces a triple challenge. But after putting together this list, I suspect there may be some other factors as well.
First, we need to widen what we think of when we think “Asian.” The default tendency is to think East Asian — Chinese, Japanese, Korean and so on — but there are also huge numbers of Southeast Asian and South Asian authors. All of these writers add new voices and new perspectives to the culture.
Second, we need to look beyond the “typical” Asian. Look at the list below; you’ll see names like Nguyen, Banerjee and Wong, but you’ll also see names we don’t immediately associate with Asia: Ruthanne Lum McCunn, for example, author of “A Thousand Pieces of Gold”; Sherry Thomas, author of more than 15 romance novels and two-time winner of the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award; Nina McConigley, whose debut collection, “Cowboys and East Indians,” won the 2014 PEN Open Book Award. Some of the authors on this list identify as fully Asian; some are part Asian; some are adopted; some use their married names; some use pen names. In short, many more authors identify as Asian American writers than you might realize from a quick glance at the spines on the bookshelf.
Third, when we talk about “writers,” we’re often really thinking “writers of literary fiction.” In fact, there are quite a few Asian American women writing literary fiction, but there are also dozens writing in other genres, everything from YA to middle grade fiction to historical fiction to romance to sci-fi/fantasy to graphic novels. Many are bestsellers and/or award-winners within their genres. Just as we need to recognize and overcome our blind spot toward Asian American women writers, we need to recognize and overcome the blind spot many critics also have toward so-called genre fiction.
Unfortunately, nothing in the response to the Senate report by current CIA Director John Brennan had anywhere near the moral clarity found in Collins’ assessment. Brennan, who has been a critical adviser to President Obama, held a very unusual 45-minute press conference at CIA headquarters to respond to the report’s release.
Brennan opened his appearance with a very dramatic recitation of the bloody events on Sept. 11 and described a post 9/11 CIA in a situation where “there were no easy answers” and concern over preventing a potential second series of attacks was of paramount concern. During that period Brennan himself was the CIA’s deputy director.
Brennan went to great lengths to distance himself from the program and his time at the agency, which coincided with its creation and operation. “I was aware of the detention interrogation program. I had some visibility into some of the activities that were there. I was not in the chain of command. I did not have authority over the implementation of that program or the management oversight over it.”
Brennan recounted that early on in President Obama’s first term the president denounced the EIT tactics as “contrary” to American values and “unequivocally banned them.” Brennan said he also found them “abhorrent.” Yet on the critical question of their use down the line he said he would “defer to the policymakers in future times” as to whether the CIA should ever revert back to its EIT playbook.
Director Brennan also took issue with the Senate Committee report’s findings that EITs failed to produce worthwhile intelligence. “There was information obtained subsequent to the application of EITs from detainees that was useful in the bin Laden operation,” Brennan insisted.
As for the decision by his colleagues back in 2005 to destroy all of those videotapes of the Agency’s EIT handiwork in action, he refused to second-guess his colleagues. “I think that has all been looked at quite a bit over the years,” Brennan told reporters.Interested in getting a big-picture view of just how total and remarkable the Republican Party’s migration to the South has really been, Salon recently called Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson, author of the recent released “To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party,” to discuss the fall of the Southern Democrat and the rise of the Dixie Republican. Our conversation is below and has been edited for clarity and length.
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